PROTOTYPE: END GAME
by St-Bazza
Summary: An attempt at  PROTOTYPE  fanfiction. Three days after the bomb is detonated, Alex discovers something new in Manhattan.
1. DISCOVERY

**[DISCOVERY]**

Alex Mercer stood on a rooftop and looked out over Time Square. It had been three days since the nuke had been detonated off of Manhattan island. Three days since he had fought the Supreme Hunter.

Three days since he had killed General Randal.

The result could be seen below. A group of marines and Blackwatch soldiers were being forced back by a tide of infected civilians. Among the throng, the occasional hunter stood out against crowds.

It was a microcosm of the whole bloody city. With the failure of the nuclear device to destroy Manhattan, Blackwatch had been forced to move back into the city to try and contain the infection once more. It had been a fight all the way, with the first problem being reclaiming posts they had abandoned in the withdrawal. Hundreds had died in the initial landfall operation alone.

Add to that a power struggle among the Blackwatch higher-ups in the wake of Randal's death and it was amazing that they had done as well as they had.

Alex sighed. Standing here watching a hopeless struggle served no real purpose. He had planned to be on the other side of central park destroying a hive by now. Instead he had paused to watch this bloody spectacle. He turned to leave.

The thump of a heavy form hitting the roof was the only warning he received. He spun about in time see the hunter launch itself at him. It's hands struck his chest and the momentum carried them both off the rooftop, to plummet to the Square below.

They struck the ground with enough force to drive them both a foot through the concrete. Alex immediately put his feet against the hunter's chest and, bracing his back against the ground, kicked upwards with all his massive strength.

The hunter soared upwards for about ten feet before crashing down in the middle of the crowd of infected, crushing several in the process. Alex rose to his feet, his hands sharpening and elongating into claws, ready for the hunter's counter attack.

He did not have to wait long.

The hunter bulled it's way through the throng of infected and leapt at him once again. Alex sidestepped and slashed at it, raking claws along it's back. The hunter bellowed in pain, then choked as he caught it around the throat and smashed it face first into the pavement. He grasped it about the back of the head and drove it's head down again and again. As it's struggles weakened he turned his right hand into a blade and drove it through the creature's back. It shuddered and then it's body seemed to become fluid as the Alex absorbed it into himself. As the last of it's form joined with his own, Alex straightened.

The he had fallen into the middle of a lull in the fighting. Behind him stood the lines of the infected and in front of him the millitary. Even as he watched, one of the Blackwatch soldiers put his hand to his radio and began to speak. In the strange silence Alex heard every word.

"RC, I need a strike team in Time Square. I have eyes on Zeus."

"Say again soldier. Did you say Zeus?"

"Affirmative dispatch. Mercer is alive."

Alex swore. Three days carefully dodging the millitary wasted.

As if his cursing were a trigger, the infected surged forward. At the same time the soldiers raised their weapons and fired.

Alex ducked down, bringing his left arm up and forming a shield. Then as he crouched behind it he turned his right arm into the serated tentacle of the whipfist. He then swung it out behind him, into the lines of the oncoming infected.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty were sliced in half and fell, only to trip those behind them. Now it was just a matter of waiting for...there! The gunfire slowed and finally peetered out, and the moment it did he burst forward. The shield made battering through the assembled soldiers a simple matter. He cleared Time Square just as the helicopters arrived and immediately gave pursuit. Dodging bullets and missiles as best he could, Alex sprinted down the street, reabsorbing the shield as he went. After running three full blocks he leapt to the side of a building and ran to the top, before continueing to sprint along the rooftops. Behind him the top of the building was torn apart by a missile impacting.

Alex dived, rolled and as another missile was launched towards him, caught hold of a nearby antenna pole. Using the pole to spin himself around he moved out of the missile's path and launched himself at the helicopter. As he came within range he turned his arm into the blade once more and savagely cut the rotor from the helicopter itself.

As the helicopter fell towards the street, the rotor blade spun off and crashed into the side of a building, shattering most of the windows. As the the helicopter struck the street and exploded, Alex used the confusion to glide into a nearby alley. A marine stood at one end, but a single thrust of his blade-arm took care of that. Alex dragged the body behind a dumpster before shifting his form. Sean Walker was a GENTEK doctor whom Alex had absorbed that morning. This form would make an adequate disguise for now. All he could do for the moment was wait for the rest of the strike team to give up and search elsewhere.

There was a buzz from the marine's radio and then a voice spoke.

"All units, I have eyes on Zeus in Central Park. Need immediate assistance."

Alex shook himself. What the hell? He was nowhere near Central Park. So what had the soldier seen?

He had to find out for himself. Crouching, he took the marine's radio and secreted it within his coat. He then stepped out of the alley and took off on foot towards the park.

He was halfway there when the radio crackled again. "All units be advised. Target is moving south-west out of the park."

Whatever it was was heading straight for him. He had to get a better view. He quickly climbed a nearby building and looked about. Nearby a swarm of three helicopters and a half-dozen UAVs were speeding along a street. Alex quickly began sprinting in that direction.

He reached the street in question about a block ahead of the strike forces and looked down. Now he saw why they had thought this thing was him. It's body was covered in hard bony plates. Forming armour very similar to his own. It sprinted down the street at a speed no human could match.

Alex watched as it passed his position and then began to keep pace with it. Every now and then the thing would leap into the air for no apparent reason before coming down to the street with a heavy thump. Alex was perplexed for a time as to why it would do this. Then realisation hit and he almost laughed. Whatever the thing was, it was still learning to use it's abilities and had not yet figured out that the armour it wore prevented it from gliding.

Alex was debating whether to leave this new creature to Blackwatch or to step in himself when a helicopter came down in front of it, cutting off escape. The creature slowed and finally stopped. Alex watched as Blackwatch soldiers decended on ropes into the street.

Then something entirely unexpected happened. The creature spoke, talking to the soldiers.

The voice croaked as it struggled over the first few words and seemed to jump back and forth between a deep male baritone and a high female soprano, as well as hitting all the tones in between. None the less, the word were unmistakeably English.

"We hurt. You hurt us. Leave. Leave us be."

Alex was stunned. With the exception of Greene and the Supreme Hunter, he had never heard any infected talk coherently. He should take capture the thing and take it to Ragland for study. It could very well solve the problem of the infection.

This all ran through his mind, but it wasn't what made decided his course of action for him. Whatever the thing was, it was in pain and scared. Who knew what it would do if pushed further.

Alex turned and carefully tore an air conditoner from it's mountings. He looked back at the scene in the street in time to see the soldiers begin to move closer.

He would have to act fast.

Taking careful aim, he hurled the air conditioner at one of the nearby helicopters, then turned before it had even found it's mark, leaping into the air and shifting his arm into a blade. He swung downwards and sheared through a second helicopter as the first one was hit by the air conditioner. Alex landed and rolled out of the way of the falling helicopter as it crashed onto the street. He came out of his roll and slashed through one of the learby soldiers, shearing through a lamp post in the process. As the post fell he caught it one handed and hurled it spear-like at the third helicopter. The pole punched through the cockpit and through the pilot himself. The helicopter spun out of control and crashed into the street, killing two of the eight remaining soldiers on the street.

Alex turned towards the last helicopter...just in time to catch a rocket in the middle of his chest. The blast threw him backwards into a wall and he fell to the pavement. Groaning in pain, he looked up just in time to see a soldier step up behind the creature and hit it smartly on the back of the head with his rifle. The creature dropped to it's hands and knees and the soldier brought his rifle to bear.

In his position close to the ground, Alex saw what the soldiers missed. The creatures fingers became fluid and seemed to bleed together. Then suddenly it rose to it's feet and buried it's left hand in the belly of the man who had struck it. As the hand drew back, Alex saw that what had been hands were now broad, leaf shaped blades. The creature turned and slashed another soldier across the throat as the rest began to open fire. As the bullets struck the black, chitonous armour, the creature leaped and bore two soldiers to the ground, a blade in each man's chest. It then spun and stabbed with both hands into another soldier's belly before ripping the blades in oposite directions and spilling his entrails.

The creature straightened and looked about before stumbling backwards from a shotgun blast from the final soldier. The man fired a second, third and fourth time as the creature moved towards him, reeling under each shot. As he went for a fifth, a bladed hand swung down and split his skull. As the man died the creature stumbled away, the blades once more becoming hands. Dozens of holes marked the bone armour plates and it's left leg trailed behind it as it dragged itself towards a nearby alley.

Seening all friendly forces within range of the target were dead, the pilot of the fianl helicopter took aim at the wounded creature. His finger eased towards the missile launch button.

He never managed to fire. Before the button could be pressed Alex's arm, in the tentacle of the whipfist shot out and pulled a machine-gun from one of the fallen soldiers to him. He took aim at the cockpit and opened fire. Bullets tore through the glass and into the pilot. The final helicopter spun out of control and crashed into a building. The street was silent except for the crackle of flames.

Alex pulled himself to his feet. In the time he had sat there most of his wounds had already closed. Now he walked to the alley where the creature had disappeared.

He found the thing behind a trash-can, arms curled around it's knees. The armour was already beginning to disolve, revealing a body covered in fine cilia like red strands. These too began to smooth out into pink skin, marked here and there by red patches where bullet wounds had been.

By the time the change was done it was clear that the creature was a woman. Dark brown hair hung to just below her ears and large green blood-shot eyes sat in eye-sockets surrounded by dark rings. She was naked, what little modesty she had kept only by the positioning of her arms and legs.

She looked up at him with a what looked suspiciously like hope in her eyes, then spoke.

"You fought them. You are like us. Please. We are scared. Please. Help us."


	2. INVESTIGATION

**[INVESTIGATION]**

Alex drove the army truck carefully through the streets towards the hospital, doing his best not to draw attention to himself. He glanced sideways at the woman asleep in the seat beside him, wrapped in a blanket. After saying her few words to him she had abruptly passed out. Alex had thought to simply carry her to the hospital, but that plan had proved impossible. He could carry a normal person easilly enough, but this woman was like he was, a huge quantity of compressed bio-mass. To put it simply, she weighed a bloody ton. He could not afford to be encumbered by her if he was caught in the open.

So he had stolen the truck, reasoning that it would keep him relatively concealed. And now the lights had turned red and here he was, stuck in traffic, having to suppress the urge to climb out of the truck and hurl the vehicles in front of him out of the way.

The whole thing was nerve-wracking.

The woman next to him began to stir and muttered something. Alex looked at her expectantly, but she merely shifted to get more comfortable and drifted off again.

Alex sighed. Too much to hope that she would wake up and they could hoof-it the rest of the way. As the lights finally changed to green and the traffic began to move, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Two hours later he finally pulled up in front of the hospital in which Ragland was employed and lifted the woman from the truck. On top of the traffic he had been further slowed by having to skirt around several millitary groups equipped with the viral detecting UAVs. After this, he swore, he would never set foot in a car again.

He carried her through the hospital and down to the morgue.

"Ragland!" he yelled as he kicked the door open, breaking off one of it's hinges in the process. He laid the woman on an empty table and looked about. The aging pathologist was nowhere in sight. "Ragland, where are you?"

"Right here." Alex spun around to see the man entering through the same door he had used moments before. "You know, after the bomb went off I thought I had seen the last of you. How did you survive?"

"Never mind that. Where were you just now?"

"Checking on your sister."

That brought Alex up short. "Oh. Is she...?"

"There has been no change. I'm sorry Alex. She may never wake up."

"Yes. She will."

Ragland gave Alex a pitying look. "Of course. Now what had you so worked up that you had to break down my door?"

Alex gestured at the woman on the slab. "Her."

Ragland looked, seeming to notice her for the first time. He lifted her left arm and dropped it just as quickly.

"Alex, you are aware that this is a morgue are you not?"

"I am."

"Yet this woman is alive. So why is she here?"

"I need you to do some tests on her. She is...something new."

Ragland looked at the woman dubiously. "You are saying she is infected? I can't see any outward signs."

"And that proves what exactly? I look human unless I choose otherwise."

Ragland nodded soberly. "Point taken. I can take some samples, run some tests." He wandered over to a cabinet and picked up a syringe and several vials. "Where did you find her?" He asked.

"Running fully armoured down the street, trying to escape a Blackwatch strike team."

Ragland raised his eyebrows and looked surprised. "She can change her form? Like you?"

"And do some things that I have never tried. It was strange though. When she spoke, she used plural terms. Always 'we', never 'I'."

"She could be insane I guess. If her feeding habbits are anything like yours it's no wonder that she snapped." He bent over to insert the needle into her arm.

The moment the needle touched her skin, the woman shot upright. Before Alex could do anything she was standing, had one hand around Ragland's throat and had slammed him into the floor, the blanket that had covered her falling away. Her face was contorted in rage and when she spoke her voice came out in a harsh whisper.

"We are not your plaything. You shall have no more of us."

She began to tighten her grip, causing Ragland to choke and splutter.

"STOP!" Alex yelled grabbing hold of her shoulder and trying to pull her away from Ragland. The face she turned towards him was a mask of anger, but the anger quickly fell away to be replaced with surprise when she saw him. She looked down at Ragland, at his face rather than at his scrubs and quickly let go.

Ragland gasped in a lungful of air and Alex breathed a sigh of relief, letting the clawed hand he had held behind his back dissolve into normal, pink skinned fingers.

She looked at Alex reproachfully. "You are working with this cutting man. Why?"

Alex was perplexed at the term 'cutting man' until he realised that she must mean doctors or scientists. The fact that she thought of them in such a way suggested the sort of experience she had had with them in the past.

"We needed to know what you are." He replied, watching her closely for a reaction.

She looked confused for a moment. "We are...us." She seemed almost lost, then her eyes seemed to refocus. "We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness."

Alex stared at her blankly. "What?"

Ragland cleared his throat. "I believe she is saying that she is genuinely more than one individual. Given what happens when you consume something it isn't so surprising."

Alex tapped the side of his head, "You're saying she has more than one mind knocking about up there?"

The woman looked affronted. "We are _standing right here._"

Alex turned to here. "Alright, sorry. Look...what should I call you? I can't keep thinking of you as 'the woman' or 'the creature'."

She looked at him for a moment then smiled tentatively. "We would not object to being called Leanne."

"Alright then, Leanne. Sorry for talking over you."

"It is okay. We will forgive you." She smiled crookedly. Alex returned the smile.

Ragland cleared his throat again. "I don't mean to interrupt,' he said, carefully averting his eyes, 'but perhaps we should find her some clothes."

Alex looked down, realising for the first time that she was no longer covered. He looked at Ragland and said, completely deadpan, "Why? When we get down to it she is as much a woman as I am. Gender doesn't really aply to us."

"All the same, I think I will go find her a gown." He turned and walked from the morgue.

Leanne leaned down and picked up the blanket, wrapping it around herself and tucking it in so that it would not fall down. Once this was done she looked back at Alex.

"We do not understand this taboo in regards to nudity. We can appreciate that it makes people uncomfortable, but we see no practical reason to cover ourselves all the time."

"It's a human thing I guess."

"Ahh, this would make some sense then. We are not human."

"What do you mean? You are like me as far as I can tell."

"We are the same, yet different also. We were created by Blacklight scientists. One of us is in fact a Blacklight scientist. Never mind that. Irrelevant. You are one strain of the virus. DX-1118 C We are another. DX-1118 B."

Alex felt a sudden rush of memories, accompanied by the familiar pain lancing through his head. Lab reports. Test subjects. Discussions with other scientists. Discussions with himself _as_ the other scientist. All flowed together into a single stream of information.

When the images cleared he was on his knees, hands pressed to the sides of his head. He glanced up to find Leanne observing him with detached curiosity.

"Why are you on your knees?"

Alex shook his head in an attempt to clear away the fog that seemed to have taken up residence there in the wake of the memories resurfacing. He stood up and looked at Leanne.

"Just memories coming back. Sure you understand."

She looked at him and carefully shook her head. "No, we do not. Do you not always have your memories? It is such for us."

Alex frowned and shook his head. "It's like searching for someone in a thick fog. You only have their voice to go on and then just to make it more fun, there are a thousand other voices yelling all the time. Sometimes something will trigger certain memories, bringing them to the surface. It can hurt a lot, but it is usually enlightening."

This time Leanne was the one to frown. "Is that not terribly disorganised? How does one get anything done when one must dig through the detritus of a thousand lives to remember things?"

"It can be a pain, certainly. I've learned to deal with it." He shook his head, silently scolding himself for drifting away from the matter at hand. "Look, not that this isn't lovely, but why were you running? And how exactly were you created? What is your purpose? If you plan to spread the infection further then I will kill you." To emphasise this he caused the fingers of his right hand to elongate into claws, which he then flexed carefully.

Leanne looked more thoughtful than alarmed. "You ask why we run? We run because we can think and reason. We see what Blackwatch does with the virus that formed us. They cannot be trusted. Also, the cutting men care little for the pain they inflict in their work. We live. We feel. If you cut us, do we not bleed?"

"So you fled because you couldn't endure what Blackwatch was doing?"

"Just as you have done Alex J. Mercer, codenamed Zeus. You found out what Blackwatch and GENTEK were doing with the virus. You sought to know more and to use that knowledge against them. And when they took steps to prevent this, you took steps of your own. Drastic steps. The result? Over 1,630,000 people may die brutally painful deaths. Many already have done."

Alex shook his head slowly. "Alex Mercer is dead. I am a different person now."

Leanne strode to the window and gestured out over the city. From where he stood Alex could see several plumes of smoke rising from the streets.

"Alive or dead, it matters little. This is the legacy of Alex Mercer."

"Shut up." Alex felt a familiar rage building and his blood began to boil. Who was she to judge him?

"Why? Can you not take the truth?"

Afterwards Alex didn't even remember the blow. All he knew was that one moment he was standing opposite her and the next she was on the floor, a red mark blooming on her cheek and he was standing over her with his fist raised.

As Leanne looked up at him Alex saw her hands become the same leaf shaped blades that she had used against the Blackwatch soldiers. Almost without realising, he felt his body begin to shift, muscles bulking up and skin hardening, preparing for battle.

He shook his head. He had to get away from her. If they stayed together too long they would likely end up killing each other.

Stepping carefully away from her, he went to the window she had been standing at a few moments before. He set his foot on the sill before looking over his shoulder.

"Don't you dare judge me. Push me too far and I won't hesitate to kill you."

He then leapt into the night.

**A/N: This was meant to be done sooner, but things (as they always do) conspired to prevent that. Reviews are appreciated. Also, there is a game quote in this chapter. 10 points apiece to the first people to tell me the quote, the person and/or the game (these points may or may not lead to pirzes in the future).**


	3. SYMPATHISING

**A/N: Well here is a treat. Another chapter. And it didn't take six months to get this one written. I must be ill. Anyway, on to the points. The quote was of course **"We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness."

**This was identified by Nano-Moose, who also identified the game (Mass Effect) and the speaker (Sovereign). Thats 30 points, plus another 5 points for identifying that Legion repeated the quote in Mass Effect 2. Now on to the next chapter.**

**[SYMPATHISING]**

Alex ran from the hospital, towards the nearest building. When he was a few hundred yards away he leapt into the air and glided towards it over the remaining distance. Below him he heard a pair of marines exclaim loudly and go for their radios. He didn't care. His blood was boiling and he needed to kill something.

He flipped out of his glide and hit the side of the building feet first. He felt the soles of his feet reshape themselves to lock into the cracks and crevasses in the side of the building, allowing him to run along the vertical face.

He looked about to get his bearings and then headed for the nearest infected district. Marines would offer little challenge compared to a few hunters and he needed something that would take his full focus.

Alex reached the top of the building he was on, ran and leapt over the street to the next. In the distance he could see several water towers, the tell-tale flocks of carrion birds hinting at the foulness within. Perfect.

He leapt across another street, caught hold of a flagpole jutting out of the side of the building and used it to spin about before launching staight up. He landed on the rooftop, the concrete shattering under his weight.

He looked about. He was on top of an apartment building. Surmounting the structure were four water towers. He took a step towards one of them and watched as the tower shuddered with the Hunter's stirring. Cracks spider-webbed over the tower and the orange of infected material began to spread as the soup inside leaked out.

Alex smiled a predatory grin, feeling his teeth sharpen to points as he did. Before the first tower coould burst he stepped into the center between the four towers and watched as the other three began to shudder. As the three began to leak the first tower finally burst. Alex carefully sidestepped as a piece of the water tank flew past him. He glanced over at the hunter watching him. The beast roared and leapt just as the three other towers burst, scattering chunks of metal in all directions.

Alex ducked out of it's path and kicked it in the back, sending it sprawling. He then elongated his left hand into claws and spun about as one of the other hunters leapt at him. Catching the hunter head on, Alex quickly yanked the beast down to roof level and shifted his hand into his favoured blade form. He then swung, hewing down through the hunter's neck and severing it's head. As the body fell limp, Alex turned and hurled the head he still held in his left hand at another oncoming hunter. Head met head and the creature fell backwards.

Alex heard a noise and turned around just in time to catch a blow to the face. The hunter's claws bit into his cheek and blood splattered across the rooftop. The first blow was rapidly followed by a second and a third, forcing him backwards across the roof. When the fourth came however, it was met by a raised hand and stopped without moving an inch.

Alex felt more and more mass moving into his arms bulking up into enormous muscles. With a quick heave, he flipped the beast over and smashed it face first into the concrete slab of the roof. Grabbing the back of it's head he began to slam it into the roof again and again. Thick blood splattered over the roof and the hunter writhed for a time before eventually stopping moving. Alex turned and looked about. The two surviving hunters were now circling about, seeking a good angle of attack. He watched then carefully, listening for movement rather than trying to watch both at once.

He did not have to wait long. As soon as it was directly behind him the larger of hunters leapt for his back, trying to bear him to the ground. Alex dodged out of the way, then had to duck as the other swung for him, trying to catch him in the chest. For several moments he was forced to do nothing more than dodge and defend as the flurry of attacks continued. Then he saw his opening. Ducking under one more swing Alex shifted both arms, adding muscle to his right and a heavy, chitonous hammerfist to his left. As he avoided the blow, Alex swung with his right hand, driving it into the hunter's head. As it snapped back, Alex spun on the balls of his feet and slammed the hammerfist over and down onto the top of the hunter's skull, crushing flesh and brain and bone into a bloody pulp.

Breathing heavilly Alex turned about...just as the large hunter stepped forward and wrapped it's fist about his throat. As Alex attempted to peel the vice like grip from his windpipe, the hunter pulled back it's arm and hurled him from the building.

Alex flew across the street to another building, crashing into a sign showing a man with a one eyed mask of half black and half orange and a sword and rifle slung over his shoulders. Falling from the bill board, he crashed into the street below. Above him the massive sign rocked from the impact and then began to tip into the street below. Alex looked up just in time to see the massive rectangle crashing down towards him.

As the sign landed on top of him Alex was slammed once more into the ground. Attempting to stand once more, Alex smashed up through the sign until he stood swaying in the sunlight once more. A shrill, gargling cry reached his ears, the unmistakeable call of a throat that had been ruined by Blacklight infection. Alex looked about and saw that he was surrounded by a crowd of infected civilians. As one the creatures shrieked and rushed forward.

Alex reacted as fast as he could. He killed the first ones to reach him with several savage kicks and punches. Then he slammed his foot down, launching a six foot bar from the bill board's support frame into the air. Catching hold of one end, Alex swung the pole about him, smashing over a dozen infected. He then quickly jabbed the bar behind him, knocking over another attacker with a blow to the chest who then tripped those behind him.

Alex turned and swung again and again, blows from his assailants met constantly with blocks and counter attacks. The constant hum of the infected hive mind fed him a soft stream of information, allowing him to predict many of the attacks before they came. The crowd began to gradually thin, though Alex could see more in the distance drawing closer.

With a last leap Alex swung the pole down and crushed the head of his final assailant. Breathing heavilly he glanced about, searching for any enemies he had missed. He was looking along a westbound street when the large hunter who had thrown him landed in front of him.

Alex began to armour his flesh even as his right arm once more became a massive blade. However, before the change was complete there was a flash of white. The hunter abruptly stiffened, twitched a few times and then it's head toppled from it's shoulders

Alex looked past it's collapsing form to the figure of Leanne. She stood in the center of the street, clad only in a white and blue checked hospital dressing gown, torn and bloodied from her travels, that she held closed with her left hand. What interested Alex more was her right arm. What looked like normal flesh at the shoulder of underneath the torn right sleeve abruptly gave way to sharp barbs and black scales as he looked further down the arm. The arm seemed to have gained an aditional joint and what had been the hand was now a wickedly curved and barbed blade, much like that of a mantis. Even as he watched, the blade disolved and soon her right arm was once more the usual pink of human flesh.

Leanne watched his gaze for a long moment and Alex felt the tension of their previous encounter begin to rise between them once more. However, Leanne looked over his shoulder at the crowds of approaching infected and abruptly turned away.

"We must share our words with you. But not here."

With that she leaped towards the side of the nearest building and began to sprint up the side. Alex shook himself and followed quickly after her.

Several minutes later they stood atop one of Manhattan's many scyscrapers. There was silence between them for several minutes. Alex looked across from his vantage point at a nearby building. There was the wreckage of a helicopter lodged halfway up, still where he had crashed it weeks before.

"We are sorry." Alex almost jumped over the edge of the building he was so shocked at the sudden noise. He looked at Leanne questioningly. She frowned slightly, apparently not sure how to continue, before trying again. "We had no right to judge you for actions we did not see ourselves. You no doubt had your reasons for what you did, monstrous though it was. We are sorry for our judgement."

Alex almost laughed. "Why should you feel sorry for that? You said what you believed and the only reason I reacted the way I did is because you were not far from the mark. I guess the truth really does hurt."

"That is not all we judged you for however. We judged you for killing, even when helping us. We had no right. We have killed as well." she pulled the gown tighter about herself. "We have killed many.

Alex turned about fully and looked at her. Out of a sudden curiosity he asked her, "Why do you wear that? Why not make clothes like I have?"

"We have never tried. And besides, some of us are far from comfortable with the idea." She tapped the side of her head with a rueful smile on her face. "Those who are not have become quite...insistent on the requirement of actual clothes."

"You're kidding?"

"We are afraid not."

Alex chuckled slightly at this. "Well the world may be ending and the gutters running with blood, but clothes is something I can manage. Come on." He turned back to the edge of the building and waited for Leanne to join him. Once she had they dropped from the building together into a slow glide.

Near the hospital where Ragland worked was an apartment building. On it's roof stood four water towers. Or they had until recently. Now the wreckage of the tanks was strewn about the rooftop. Orange muck covered all of it, except for a small piece of one of the supports. This was clean except for the usual grime of the city and a large splash of dark red blood. The blood had been running down the support for a while now, collecting on the underside of a piece of metal. Now at last a drop was forming, growing bigger and bigger until it finally fell.

It landed in the orange material that covered the rooftop, causing a slight ripple. Nothing happened for a moment...then blackness began to spread like fire through the foul mess. In a few short moments the whole roof top was covered in blackness, which then began to creep slowly towards the street below...

**A/N: Well there goes chapter 3. Thoughts and comments are always appreciated. And now an anouncement. We have a prize up for grabs. The first person to receive one hundred points will be able to have a character of their own creation appear in this or one of my future stories. This will be subject to certain constraints (I will not have you creating puppy dogs that shoot laser beams out of their eyes), but if your character is well designed it may well play a major role in the story.**

**Now on to this week's question: Who is the person portrayed in the sign Alex is thrown into? Points will remain un speciefied at this time. Just see what you can find out.**

**One final thing. I am considering writing a Teen Titans fanfic, _Lost in the Dark_. The first two chapters have been posted as a trial so please read if you are interested. Reviews are very much appreciated. Depending on the reception I may or may not continue with it.**

**Here is the address: .net/s/6574631/1/**

**So for now, Das vidanya or somesuch.**


End file.
